The organization has determined that its first priority is to donate half of its "bonus" funds above its $75,000 business launch target to the Allen Telescope Array (ATA).

“We don´t have to wait to begin helping space research until we launch our first product, we´re starting now!” Uwingu CEO, Dr. Alan Stern, said in a prepared statement distributed through PRLog. “We hope this will be a double-win–generating more funds available to launch our own commercial products, and more funds available to the ATA´s research teams.”

The ATA is an array of 42 radio telescopes in Northern California that studies exoplanetary systems discovered through the Kepler mission.

“We know where exoplanets planets are located, and the ATA is systematically exploring them to try to uncover evidence that one of these systems is generating radio signals," ATA´s Dr. Jill Tarter said. "We hope that Uwingu will accelerate this process and bring us closer to answering the question of whether we share this cosmos with others."

Uwingu (which means “sky” in Swahili, and is pronounced “oo-wing-oo”) was formed by astronomers, planetary scientists, former space program executives, and educators.

Uwingu's crowd-sourcing campaign will last until September 14th. The organization said that it already has almost 300 sponsors for its upcoming launch and is nearing half way in meeting its crowd-funding goal.

"Alternative funding in the form of entrepreneurship is an absolute necessity if we are to continue exploring and solving grand challenges," Tarter said.

"All of us can participate in the IndieGoGo campaign and the launch of Uwingu, and purchase its products to generate revenues to fund the best ideas from scientists today and into tomorrow," Tarter said.